Type Help

This game is currently the highest-rated game on IFDB for 2025. I decided to see what it was all about.

I had a little bit of a rocky start. There are two time intro segments, and during the second I went to go get a drink of water so I could read it all when I got back. When I returned, there was just an empty text box with no context. Reloading brought me to the same screen. Eventually I just did an incognito tab and got the game to run again, but it didn't have many instructions here either.

That's when I realized that the game name was also the instruction (and I think it does display it after the tutorial, I had just tried typing something and overwrote it):type HELP.

Anyway, from there on it was a fun ride. It turns out that you're reopening a case that had long stymied investigators. You have access to audio files for many individuals at a house on a certain night long ago. The investigator has organized these files in a peculiar classification system.

Your job is to find all the files. The game, then, becomes a task of discovering the pattern in the file names and recovering all possible files.

Interwoven into this task and inseparable from it is the story. Names, family relationships, overheard plans, all of these are key to solving the game's meta puzzle. You must comprehend the story to solve the game.

The story is an intriguing one. Our 'viewpoint character' of sorts arrives at a house after receiving an invitation. Peculiarly, no one seems to know the man who sent the invitation. Soon, a dead body is discovered.

The dynamics on display include jealousy, romantic love, dark family secrets, and curiosity.

I had a lot of fun. There were times when the game was extremely frustrating. I didn't resort to looking up hints but at times I was stuck for 10 or 15 minutes with no progress at all. I ended up playing so much that I missed two things I've done every day for a long time: going to bed at midnight (I stayed up for a half hour to finish) and drawing (first day I've missed in a year!)

So, while the game was extremely frustrating at times, it would be silly to rate a game that consumed my attention so much less than a 5, which I've done.

Edit:
As a side note, a lot of the 'best puzzles' as voted for in the XYZZY awards over the years are ones where you learn a new system, like a language or a machine. This puzzle set is a great example of that, where you have dawning realizations and where you actually become better at a skill over time (the skill of deducing the next files).

What a compelling game! It really hit that sweet spot of slowly creeping sense of dread interspersed with triumphant aha! moments. There were a few scenes that gave me genuine chills, and a couple puzzles that were really brilliant (and made me feel brilliant too). The core mechanic was a neat logic puzzle that was fun and engaging the whole way through. I'll be thinking about this one for a while!